I remember sitting in my college astronomy class, watching a professor sketch out the Bullet Cluster on a chalkboard. He said, "This is proof of dark matter." But even then, I thought, "Proof of what, exactly?" We see gravitational lensing where there's no visible matter. That's real. But calling it dark matter is just a label for something we don't understand. It's like saying "magic" explains a magic trick.
You brought up the Bullet Cluster, and I'll admit it's a strong point. MOND has trouble there. But here's the thing: dark matter doesn't actually explain it either. It just names the gap. We're basically saying, "We see something weird, so let's invent an invisible substance." That's not a theory, that's a placeholder.
Meanwhile, MOND keeps predicting galaxy rotations correctly. Dark matter keeps needing patches. One is doing the work, the other is getting funding.
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